Atlanta rock’n’roll gang RMBLR offers us their second 5 song EP now on Spaghetty Town Records. The catchy single and video “My Main Muscle” sparkled my interest delivering some catchy punk rock’n’roll with with a good dose of fun and a wild vibe often missing in bands today. You can also hear this in the ’77 punk stained “Machine Gun!!” or “Hurricane Kiss” while the glam bootboy “Tal’m Bout” brings GIUDA to mind. Concerned with American police violence and racial injustice, RMBLR hits us with “Move Over” and leaves us wanting to hear much more. Bringing back the spirit of Bovver and Sharpies with a proto-punk/early glam sound, glitter rock mullets and hooligan vocals, RMBLR are ready to conquer the world whether you want it or not! We’ll be sure looking forward to seeing them in Europe. /Laurent C.
“Main Muscle” shows the lighter side of RMBLR, but please, proceed with caution. There’s nothing soft about this track, and the vocals are more savage than the “Macho Man” himself. Wild west piano tapping helps to elevate the track into a saloon style brawl.
“Main Muscle” will be available on all streaming/download outlets on May 14, 2021.
The RMBLR MF/EP will be out in June 2021. In North America on Spaghetty Town Records and in Europe on Wanda Records (Germany). The MF/EP will be available on vinyl and digital formats.
Atlanta rock’n’roller Rod Hamdallah is offering us two brand new blues/soul rock’n’roll songs on vinyl and digital released by Hound Gawd! Records. “Crawling Back” has a sweet late 60s/70s rock taste, it’s short, quite catchy with a cool guitar melody following Rod’s voice. B-side song “Mali Jam” is more influenced by West African music, Touareg and desert blues from the Sahara. No vocals, only repetitive African beats and bluesy rockin’ guitars that almost create a psychedelic trance. Whether Rod Hamdallah explores classic rock or his African influences, he still does it with a garage rock touch that makes his style quite unique. /Laurent C.
This debut EP was first released in 2014 as a self-produced CD and Hound Gawd! Records have decided to give it a second life on 10″ vinyl. ROD HAMDALLAH is from Atlanta, GA so it’s no surprise to hear some soul and blues in his garage rock’n’roll. While “Think About It” opens on a quite punk rock note, “Carry You Home” (featuring Colonel J.D. Wilkes of The LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS) is filled with interesting soul and rockabilly touches and in case you need to find a song to play after The WHITE STRIPES during a DJ set, then “I Don’t Mind” will be a great choice. Side B offers us “Heatbeat”, a quiet bluesy song with a voodoo/gypsy feel, and “Take Me Back”, a bluesy rock’n’roll song with a powerful guitar-driven chorus.
Whether you like traditional garage or modern rock’n’roll, you’ll find something for your tastes in this EP. ROD HAMDALLAH seems to be touring a lot, and will be back to Europe soon, so keep an eye on him… /Laurent C.
Atlanta’s new power pop/glammy rock’n’roll heroes BITERS have just released a new video for “Reckless Hearts”, a song from their Earache records debut album “Electric Blood” (Out on August 7, 2015.)
Our friends at Glambone podcast interviewed singer/guitarist Tuk HERE!
As the video for “So Many Nights” was just being released, I realized that we still had no BITERS interview on Veglam! Tuk (Vocals/Guitar) tells us about this new video, their European tour experiences and tastes in music/books/movies… and costumes!
You have just released a new video for “So Many Nights.” Can you talk a bit about it? After watching it as well as “Hallucination Generation” It seems like you have a lot of fun making videos…
I am fortunate enough to have an amazing cinematography team here in Atlanta called “Video Rahim”.
If it wasn’t to so expensive, I would do more videos. It takes a lot of time and work when you are doing it yourself.
All of our videos have been self-funded, which I am proud of. The band has so many amazing people in ATL that are willing to help us.
So many nights was especially fun and also a little out of control with all the drunk hell raisers involved, it was like herding cats! haha!
Can you introduce your new bass player?
The new bassist is Phil, a long time friend of mine who just recently moved back from L.A, and it so happened to be the exact time The Biters needed a bassist.
I needed a high harmony singer and a team player… I searched high and low. Since he moved back to Atlanta it was super convenient.
How did you get into rock music first? What was the first record you bought? The first band shirt you got?
My mother really got me into rock music. First tape she ever bought me was “AC/DC Back in black”.(still one of my all time faves).
She was at an AC/DC concert while she was preggo with me and said she touched Angus Young and his sweat got all over her..
She swears it seeped into her pores and into my blood!! haha!!
In 6th grade I got a Sex Pistols shirt… I thought I was the coolest kid in my redneck town.
You opened for DANKO JONES on his last European tour. I read in one of your interviews that it wasn’t always an easy task. Would you rather come back headlining in smaller clubs like on your last tour?
DANKO JONES TOUR RULED! I would rather do big club tours like Danko than smaller ones actually.
The reason why the Danko tour was so hard was because of our ex-manager’s lack of common sense.
He had no places for us to sleep, no merch to sell, no cell phone, couldn’t pay for the van and gear rental etc. The list goes on n on… He almost got the band black listed in Europe. The owner of the van actually called the police on us on the last show because our manager spent all the band money flying his wife over and then went MIA leaving us to our own devices, never telling us the backline and van were unpaid for… sheessshh!!! .
The last Euro tour was a diaster as well. The shows were great, the crowds were great, the food was amazing. The booking agency that did the tour gave us zero time to sleep or rest… We went almost a month on 2 to 4 hours of sleep a night.
The grueling schedule was to ensure the money we invested was paid back… The tour was so mis-managed by the booker we lost THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, putting the band in to bankruptcy and causing huge internal turmoil.
The band hasn’t toured in almost a year because we are trying to recuperate from the devastating blow. All this because we trusted someone who in the end almost caused the band’s demise.
Ok enough negativity!!!
Europe rules! They love rock n roll! and they love real rock n roll!! I wish america would step up to the plate!
You also opened for ACE FREHLEY in the US. What other bands have you opened for there?
The ACE FREHLEY TOUR ruled!!!
We have opened for Cheap Trick
Toured with Social Distortion Wednesday 13 Riverboat Gamblers D Generation Manitoba (Dictators) Jesse Malin Last Vegas Danko Jones
and more…
Opened for countless bands as well and a lot of headlining tours..
Favourite cities to play in the US?
Favorite US Cities:
Atlanta
Baltimore
New York
Chicago
Milwaukee
Philly
Austin
L.A…
Actually i dig em all.
You released a few vinyl records on French label Pop The Balloon Records. How did that happen? Your first album was hard to find for a long time. What happened? Distribution problems?
Pop The Balloon approached us. Fabien, the owner is a nice guy. There was no distribution for the first album, we just sold them our selves at the merch table, then Pop The Balloon repressed them, so they started poppin’ up again.
You produced The WYLDLIFE’s last album. Do you regularly produce band?
I love to produce records… I try to produce as much as possible. Bands don’t have a lot of money nowadays, so I work for dirt cheap..I’d love to do more.
It seems like a lot of people are getting BITERS tattoos. When did you first see someone with one? What was your reaction?
The first Biters tattoo I saw was in Atlanta and I was stoked!!! I love it!
I have some band tattoos and the 3 eyed tiger is badass, so why not!!!!!!!???????
Last records you’ve listened to today?
Hey! Hello! (“Black Valentine”) Ryan Adams (“Rock n Roll”) Dinos Boys (Last ones)
Last book you’ve read?
The wind up girl, Ace Frehley‘s book, tons of metapsyhical reading…
Last movies you enjoyed?
Gravity… that shit was riveting as fuck!haha
I’m more of a true detective man..
also ,any dystopian sc-fi flick is my jam.
Today is Mardi Gras in France. I saw a pic of you dressed up as an alien somewhere. What costume would you wear today?
I would go as a giant dick, and head butt women all day! jk
I read that people can order “The Last Of a Dying Breed” and give money to animal charities at the same time. Can you tell us about this?
Yes! our new manager has a charity set up so when you buy merch you help animals in need!
That’s one of the reasons that sealed the deal of him working with us..
I am def a huge animal lover and support it fully.
Are you working on a new album? Any idea about what record label would put it out?
WE ARE! We are going to do a full length this year! We have an idea of what label is going to release it. As soon as it happens you’ll be the first to know! haha!
How come The BITERS are not the biggest new band around yet? Let’s face it: They’ve got the songs, the look and I’ve heard that they’re even better as a live band. You would think that opening for bands like ACE FREHLEY, DANKO JONES (which is quite big in Europe) or SOCIAL DISTORTION would help… Ok, it probably does, Rome wasn’t built in one day they say, so let’s wait again and listen to this new EP released by Pipeline Records before these guys make Atlanta the new world rock’n’roll capital.
Despite a not very attractive cover, these 4 new songs show that The BITERS are still the band that rock’n’roll/glam/power pop fans have been waiting for these last years. Sure, The BITERS wear their influences on their sleeves (CHEAP TRICK – “Hallucination Generation” or THIN LIZZY – “So Many Nights”) but they know how to write and get you hooked on a song (“Hell Is For Babies” is the perfect example), and that makes a huge difference these days. On this brand new EP, the band also explores a new side of their music, slowing down the tempo with “Evil Eye”, a quite interesting 70s influenced rock ballad with an epic ending.
I’ve heard that The BITERS might be touring European clubs in March 2013. By then, hopefully Rod Stewart/SLADE haircuts and glitter rock shirts will be the new cool./Laurent C.
Veglam 